Broadband Usage - "unusual" spikes in our usage

In May we received a "warning" email from BT about our usage - and being fairly new to BT broadband I started to investigate the usage meter. As far as I can tell the ONLY way for me to see daily usage is for ME to log on daily and manually record the previous days total.

I called BT and they told me that due to data protection law they are unable to provide me with any detail about our usage, apart from the running total.

Not happy about this I made a complaint, and got put through to a chap who was able to tell me that in the previous week we had 1 days usage of 12GB and another of 5GB. Our totals for the previous 2 monthly were 19GB and 21GB respectively.

Our total for May was about 41GB (i.e. about 1 GB over our contract)

We do not watch TV on line

We do not stream music

We do not "game" on line

We do email, internet searches and download podcasts (and have done this for years).

So the question is why are BT unable to provide ANY detaild data about broadband usage. They are able to record daily usage but why can't I see it?

Has anyone any ideas or suggestions about how to deal with this thorny issue with BT. You wouldn't go to a petrol station and pay for a full tank without knowing how much fuel you'd out it!!

The data protection reference is cobblers. If there was anything in it how would Plusnet (owned by BT!) be able to provide all the detail you need in their usage monitor? Your question should not be why are BT unable to provide more detail, but why are they failing to.

If this is the first time you've exceeded your limit you won't be charged. Quite a few people have questioned alleged increeases in their usage lately and there have been reports of successful challenges to BT. Best thing is to keep an eye on it and report back here if further problems seem to be in the offing.

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